Another New Post

Port Side Vented Stanchion Post Replacement

We've had issues with the Holding tank venting since we started caring for Eximius in 2015 and finally got down to fixing the smelly woes. 

Ordered new Stanchion from CatalinaDirect.com - always good people to deal with. Delivery was delayed by Hurricane Irma, but that didn't matter, we had plenty on our plate to work on.

So today, Monday, we headed down to the boat to replace the stanchion.

There are a couple of issues with the old stanchion.

• It's corroded - that's a safety issue
• It  has been re-bedded before, but since then it has been daubed in Silicone to try and stem the leaks by a previous owner - that never works in the long run.
• The Silicone prevents water passage to the scupper (left in the pic) so we get that grotty brown stain forward of the stanchion.

The Silicone has started to peel away from the deck, so it no longer provides any water proofing.

I spent 20 minutes cleaning out the philip head screws in order to get a screw driver to bite so that we could remove the stanchion.

This is what it looks like below decks. It's an awkward place to reach, We had to reach over the Nav Table and then behind the cabinet bar which hides the wires. (The top of this pic is the inside of the Hull, the brown is the underside of the deck)

The corrosion is also evident on the vent tube.

Step 1. Remove the Lifelines from the Stanchion, this was easy as I had replaced the lifelines with Dynmea Line and all I needed to do was release the lashing at the bow pulpit and then remove the thimbles from the aft end of the lines and then pull the lines through the holes in the Gate Stanchion, that only took about 10 minutes.

Then, Peggy sat by the stanchion with a Philips head driver holding the screws still while I used a rachet and socket below to remove the nuts off of the 4 screws.

That took about an hour simply because they were difficult to reach and the corrosion hindered removal.

Initial clean up was by scraping off the silicone with a knife, wire brushing the surface and then spending the rest of an hour digging out the silicone from the none skid surface.

The good news is that when they were last re-bedded, the holes were correctly protected with a coat of resin, the deck was solid and no wet spots at all. Phew!

Those grey marks are probably a previous effort to cure a damp deck issue, they just drilled and filled with a very thin drizzle of resin.

After clean up and chamferring the holes in preparation for the application of Butyl tape on the base of the stanchion.

I also drizzled some Capn Tolley Crack filler into the thin hairline cracks in the gel coat.

New Stanchion installed! This took over an hour and a lot of sweat inside the cabin. Just reaching the bolts in order to put the new Backing Plate, Fender Washer, Small Washer, Spring Washer and 7/16" Nut on each bolt was a pain!

But when it all tightened up and the Butyl tape oozed out of the sides of the plate and around each of the screw heads, it is certainly water proof.

After a final clean up, there's an appropriate gap between the stanchion base and the toe rail that should allow water to run into the scupper.

Final clean up requires that we take our Dyson Vacuum down to the boat and some new 1/2" Hose to replace the old hose that ran from the stanchion to the holding tank, 6' should do it.

The old stanchion:

Very pleased with the outcome.

Total time was about 3 1/2" hours, a quick trip back to the house and an well earned lunch.